I'm not sure if this is the best area of the board to post this, but I wanted to share one of my decks that I'm really happy with. I think it is perfectly tuned for the environment that I play it in (a Huge map with Rare resources and specials, and three opponents), and could probably be adapted for other situations without much difficulty. I built it as a challenge to myself to see if I could put together a capable deck using only 40 cards and 100 points. In fact, it has turned out better that most of my high value decks. With it I have two Iron Man wins with 529 points each, and in my my first Cults game I beat the Fists (and everybody else) for 651 points.

Play strategyExplore fast, expand to grab lots of resources, then crank up the techs to build your armies of doom.

Under the settings this deck is best adapted for, there are not many resources. You want to find and claim as many as you possibly can. Get recon units out and exploring on your first turn, and possibly the second and third (depending on what else you draw). Consorts are awesome with their two hex recon range (often you can see enemy recon units without them seeing you). Expect to lose a lot of your recon armies as the game progresses, since the enemy will attack them on sight (and they are both weak and non-stealthy). Don't worry, you have eight units to lose!

After playing one or two recon units, save up your Human resources to build a Brood Pen (if you get one in your hand early) or the War nest (again if you have it in your hand) or a hero who will build a resource collector to gather the second human resource on your starting tile. Both early on and in the mid-to-late stage of the game, Humans will be a limiting factor in your growth, so gather as many as you can. With luck your recon units will also find a few Material resources. You need only one or two Materials early on (to play your Reavers), so don't worry if the only ones you get are from an abandoned warehouse or old battlefield.

Typically by the time I've got my HQ's Human resource supply taken care of I've explored most of the terrain within my supply range, though if you've run into trouble (for instance if the enemy has jumped one or two of your recon armies) you might have a bit more to go. In any case, you need more resources to really get in gear. This is when I take one of the Reaver units and a general and start clobbering the various independents that are likely to be sitting on the good resources. I'll also drop one or two Hidden Hives to expand my supply range (so the recon units can explore further away). I also try to kill any enemy recon armies sent my way (the Xenoceptor is great for picking off out-of-supply recon units).

As the resources start to roll in, you can play more and more cards from your hand, and soon you'll be drawing the last cards of the deck. It is time to move in to the middle phase of the game and build a big stompy army. Until now there's been only a limited threat to our safety, since the distance and terrain between our HQ and the enemies' keep most units away (typically all except those with the Commando ability). You should play the Queen as soon as possible (for the APs) and now at this point start hatching out a huge number of units from all of the Larvae that you've played (to clear space in your hand for better things). By the time you run out of Larvae, you'll have your research pipeline set up and one of your geneticists (properly fortified with Revelation Serum, equipped with a Psychic Enhancer and backed up with some tactics) can pop out a Brood Hive without much trouble. Now you have as many units as you have Human Resources to spare.

In fact, you always need more Humans, so go and conquer one of your opponents and take theirs (avoid going after the Machines first, since they may not have any Humans on their HQ's tile). As far as armies go, you have a few options. Monstrosities are great, though slightly less so against the Machines. Abominations, which have Shock Attack, are fantastic too (especially of you face an enemy army with only one strong unit). My favorite big damage setup is a Beasts unit with two Death Rods (this combo can easily do 8 or more damage with a single hit). Another way to deal with a strong enemy is to build a bunch of Plasma Blossom munitions for your Xenoceptor and bomb them into nothingness (3x damage is huge when you can use tactics cards to reduce the defense dice). This deck can shift into high gear a bit faster than most of the other decks I've designed, mostly because you are unlikely to draw useless cards (the closest is the hidden hives you need to extend your range when going in for a kill, but which you don't need early on).

After conquering one opponent you're well on your way to victory (you can start paying to win initiative every round from here on). If you play like me and keep your recon units near the action where they can spot enemy movement, you will have lost most of them to enemy attacks by the end game. This is where the other top technology comes in, the Remote Viewer. Getting it into play really means the game is won, since when you can see everything your opponents are doing, you can avoid their strengths and prey on their weaknesses. Even the stealthiest assassins will occasionally be spotted when you have Recon 3 on every hex (be sure to capture them every time this happens, for the bonus APs!). M'sisilik is also great for going after those pesky assassins at all times in the game, and there is enough redundancy in hero abilities that losing any one isn't debilitating. The game against the first cult that I described at the top of the page was a bit extreme, as I lost 6 heros to various causes (the listing above is actually slightly tweaked from what I played because I decided that a third general and second tactician were required).

Anyway, I've posted at much greater length than I intended. Does anyone see ways that this deck could be improved? Do you have low valued decks that have worked well for you? What ideas are there for low valued decks from the other factions? (I've considered a machine deck centered around massive armies of Thralls, but I have a strong suspicion that it would be terrible.) Post your own best decks!

I don't know that I could improve it, but it looks like a fun and challenging deck. I especially admire the restraint on not loading up with Bio Mecha. If you lose your research abilities before you get the egg chamber running you could be in a world of hurt. The egg chamber is one of my favorites as well. It's like buying a lottery ticket each time you evolve an egg!

Interesting, my favorite deck is built on the same premises. I posted it before on the wargamer forums along with similar decks for the other factions. I keep revising it though and the latest version is this: (download)

Play strategy(I typically play on 275/15/large/rare/rare and have tried it against the first four cults.)Most of what BlckKnght wrote holds true for this deck as well, so I'll just point out some details.

I tend to focus only on holding my HQ, which is where I'll place all buildings, researchers and administrators. If I lose another base it's no big deal, I can just retake it later.

For early game defense and taking out independents either R'lyah leading some Vassals, the Airpower or one of the Destroyers is usually enough.

I usually team up each of the scouts with a Consorts to get one that can cover a large area and one that is a superb bounty hunter.

The recce is far more limited than in BlckKnght's deck. Once the Remote Viewer is out they become less important though.

There's also fewer supply buildings, which means you have to use the enemies bases against them.

5 Vassals led by R'lyah become 9/4 creatures, armed with Death rods and modified with Invigoration Serum they can overcome all but the biggest enemy armies. Especially when backed with Tactics cards.

Every General, Agent, Scout and Researcher should have a Psychic Enhancer asap and Revelation Serum when you can afford it.

Illith is the only assassin and needed for assassinating generals so don't send him to the enemies base on his own.

I never realized that Brood Hives could create unlimited larvae until I read this thread. That makes it ... quite a bit easier, I may have to refrain from using it. This really influences the rest of the points.

Since you cannot afford losses it is important to get big enemy stacks out of supply and/or leaderless and to have a full hand of tactics cards when you face them.

Human resource is the most important in the beginning but the other resources usually take over as the bottleneck when you start focusing on research.

That's quite enough I think. I'll have to try BlckKnght's Deck sometime to see how different it feels in play.

Xeno's are fun because you can do things like this. Also their natural 2 AP to draw from the deck helps you to keep your hand full. The brood chamber is crazy though. An unlimited army is a force to be very afraid of. With Xeno's you need to kill the Heroes to stop its 8 stack armies from killing everyone. Probably the strongest race if played right.

BlckKnght wrote:(I've considered a machine deck centered around massive armies of Thralls, but I have a strong suspicion that it would be terrible.)

I want to do this too. I think the idea of a 40-card deck is great, and it's clearly viable with the Xenos. My idea for the Thralls is to load them up with Nanites. I took out a 100% health Vengeance in one pop with a Nanite, they can be really powerful.

A thrall + Nanite wouldn't cost that much - 1/2/1/3, similar to a Scourge Platoon. It's a matter of getting to that point in the game that I'm not so sure about. If I come up with something, I'll post it.

I love the Xenos - and you do need some self-imposed penalties. I am going to try this 100 point deck - I can see that it will play faster than a higher point deck, and you don't sacrifice much firepower. I like the efficiency of it - not a single card wasted!

I played a couple of games with no units - just eggs. Imagine the scenario when a crashed hiveship kills all the units that were not protected in eggs...... A real challenge:1) You have to play the game without recce units. You are running blind until you get the remote viewer up2) You start resource starved, taking longer than the enemy to find resources and you need to build a technology/genetics powerhouse as fast as you can....I played common resources and didn't give the enemy a tile point advantage, and this was before Cults.....3) You are vulnerable to an early rush. I used spawning ground in the deck, you always get a hero to build spawning pen, but it is 5-6 turns before you get your first egg hatched......and what if it is a Drone